Dear Editor,

There is no need for the uproar over what the minister said about denying bail to gunmen and murderers. I think she is right.

However, she has used the wrong terms, and this is why some attack her.

It’s very simple, all she has to do is to make bail still available to everyone. But, here is the catch: She will need to bring the cost of posting bail so high that these criminal will never be able to afford it, so they will stay behind bars. Truly put a real-world value to the risk. Everything else has gone up in cost.

They could never say they were denied bail. It would be on the perpetrators and their defenders to come up with the bail money.

Jamaica cannot continue to go soft on these vicious criminals. It’s time to get tough and stop the gum-beating, without action.

There was a recent news story of a guy in Canada who had been charged just for blocking a bridge during a protest of the COVID-19 vaccine and he was denied bail. So why shouldn’t murderers and gunmen not be denied bail as well?

I am very concerned when I see lawyers who should know better attacking the minister on the proposed amendment to the Bail Act. Those lawyers must realise that the victims have no chance of bail, because their lives have been snuffed out by these vicious criminals who should stay locked up.

Robert Clarke

rclarke88@hotmail.com